The Strength of Love
by Brittbre1225
Summary: Suppose Aang had a sister. And thet they were royalty of the Air Temples. And that they both were Avatars. What would happen if she was involved in his adventure, just needing to help someone along the way. This is the adventure of Cornelia to protect Aang yet find out why she exists along the way. Can she calm the raging fire of a heart of the son of the enemy?
1. Chapter 1

The Strength of Love

Hi! This is my first Fanfic! Hope you like it and follow. It begins right after the first time Zuko and Iroh docked and spoke to Zhou, like about three days after that. I will be keeping the following couples (Katara and Aang, Sokka and Suki), and I will probably be adding a few more people, like boyfriends for Toph, Tai Lee, and even Mai and Azula (SHOCKING, right?)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. If I did, I guess this wouldn't be here, it would probably be part of the show. Please enjoy and review.

Zuko:

I couldn't believe it. After three years of seemingly endless searching, I had finally found the avatar and captured him as well! But that triumph was short-lived, seeing as those two water tribe peasant _children_ snatched him out of my grasp. The boy even had the nerve to hit me in the head as I had done to him! Even the Avatar teased me, saying I should try fighting with fun! How childish! But then again, he is a child, so it makes sense that he would think that way…. Gah!  
Oh, they better believe they haven't seen the last of me yet. I swear that I will... grrrrr!  
In all of my rage, I hadn't realized the ship had changed course! Now we were preparing to dock. Three guesses who gave the men orders for that. Of course Uncle would do this!

Uncle wouldn't let me even get a chance to yell at the men for obeying his orders on the course of the ship instead of my own. Now, while I'm walking through this little forest, I am attempting to come up with a new plan to capture the avatar.  
"Maybe I could kill the Bison in mid-air! ….. No, no. That would kill the Avatar too, and my father wants him alive." I growled. I can't believe how hard it is for me to capture a thirteen year old boy! I throw a fireball at a rock in my frustration.  
Just then, it began to glow, first a blue color like the beam the Avatar had made, and then the glow turned green. The ground began to shake. I stumbled, but managed to land on my knees and see what was in front of me.

A crystalline structure appeared then began to break while they ground shook. Then, at the top of the crystal, I saw a person. The crystal cracked, and then glowed brighter, then…. It disappeared!  
The person, a girl, started to fall! I ran forward and caught her, just to make sure she wouldn't be killed of course. I lay her on the ground, and find she is not injured, only unconscious. I brush some of her golden hair out from in front of her face, and find myself gazing into the most beautiful emerald green eyes looking back at me. I realize my hand is still resting near her cheek and she could freak out at any moment, so I drop my hand, and back away, preparing to stand and leave.

Cornelia:

I was chasing Aang that night, to protect him so he wouldn't get himself killed. Our parents definitely would kill me if my brother died while I was in charge of him.  
He had just found out that he was an Avatar, so he soon will be taken to meet our parents, if he isn't too heartbroken by becoming separated from Gyatso.  
I wish they had waited until he was sixteen, like they had for me. Just this previous year, I had turned sixteen, and they told me I was an Avatar, and that my and Aang's parents are the King and Queen of the North and East Air temples.  
That made me Princess of the Southern Air Temple and Aang was Prince of the Western Air Temple!  
They told him too early! He still had too much of a family bond with Gyatso. Of course he chose to run away!

I began having trouble keeping up with Aang on my glider. I was being tossed this way and that. Then I saw Aang and Appa fall.  
I tried to reach them, but I only got myself to fall into the water, about forty feet from them. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't reach them, and I was tossed further from them. As I began to drown, my arrows glow a bright blue, assuring me that Aang was safe, then they turned green and I went into a partial Avatar state and felt everything just freezing in place.

It's strange, how just a warm hand awoke me.  
When I felt it, I opened my eyes, looking straight into the golden eyes of the boy who awoke me. He dropped his hand suddenly, as if he thought I was going to go psycho on him and call him a pervert or something. I stayed there for a moment, as he got up, before jumping about thirty feet in the air, as a stretch. I let my arrows glow, to finish trying feel normal.

Zuko:

She looked into my eyes, staring straight back at me. Then she surprised me even further.  
She jumped Agni-knows-how-high. When she did so, arrows appeared on her and began to glow a mix of that blue and green from earlier. How could this be?  
_Could there really be two Avatars?_ I ask myself. Either way, I am not going to just leave her here.  
She will be coming with me.

Cornelia:

"Thank you! Thank you so much for freeing me!" I say to the boy.  
"What is your name?" he asks, not so nicely.  
"Cornelia."  
"Are you an Avatar?"  
"Yes, my brother should be somewhere around here, hopefully."  
"Brother?"  
"Yes, brother, his name is Aang; so what's yours?"  
He looks at me, skeptically, before he answers. "Prince Zuko, the Prince of the Fire Nation."  
I feel like I should be sarcastic, but I keep that in and reply decently, "Well, if we are going by titles, then please call me Princess Cornelia and my brother Prince Aang."

He seemed to be lost in thought, and just before I got to ask him what he was thinking about, something finally caught on in his mind and his eyes flashed.  
"Aang?!"  
He doesn't give me the chance to reply as he grabs my wrist and starts to run.  
We end up in front of a ship, and an old man catches his attention from whatever he is thinking.  
"Oh, Zuko! You must try the tea here! It is fantastic!"  
Then he must notice this boy is holding my wrist and says, "Oh? So you have finally brought a lady-friend home, have you, Zuko? She is very beautiful!"  
Lady-friend? He thinks we're dating?  
He obviously is meaning it as a joke, because he is smirking; I just know I like him immediately.

"NO Uncle! She is our new prisoner! She is the sister of the Avatar, and she also IS an Avatar!"  
Uncle?  
This guy is the nephew of him?  
Prisoner?  
Wait- what?  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up!"  
This gets both of them to look at me. "Prisoner? I thought you just knew where Aang was! If you want me to be your prisoner, you are going to have to fight me!"  
Good thing we are near water, now I can use both of the elements I know against him.

I bend a water whip to make him let go of me.  
He then charges at me, shooting fireballs while I attempt to trip him with puddles and strong winds. He reaches me, and we begin to fight using hand-to-hand combat. He underestimates me for a second as I jump, kicking him with both feet, sending him seven feet away.  
He jumps up, apparently really angry, and shoots a series of fireballs at me. As I continue dodging them, his Uncle calls out to him, distracting us both.  
"Zuko! Stop!"  
He said it too late, I realize, as a fireball reaches and hits me.  
It hit my side and I instantly screamed at the burning pain!  
For a brief moment after I collapse to the ground, I see the boy who hurt me, Zuko, running to my aid with a look of complete horror and worry written on his face.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey! I'm back with ch.2!

Disclaimer:All I own are my OC's

Zuko:

I hear her scream. I look over to her, with horror and worry slowly etching across my face as I see her hit with my fire ball and collapsing. She is in so much pain. My instincts take over, and next thing I know, I am by her side. I see her pass out, I partially regain my composure. "Uncle! Get some medical supplies!" I yell, picking her up and rushing to the ship.

As the crew begins to set sail, I take her to my cabin. I leave while my Uncle treats her and lean against the railing on the deck. I try to figure out what happened. As soon as I heard her scream my mind knew instantly to go rescue her, protect her, defend her from any danger. _Like myself_, I think, in retrospect.

I try to shove thoughts of my worry for her out of my head. _She is your Prisoner, Zuko. You must use her to capture the other Avatar. You have to turn both of them in to your father. You must get your honor back. She is nothing to you. You….. you hurt her._

Why, all of a sudden, does she matter so much to me? _Her golden hair is beautiful. Her eyes are amazing. She is a symbol of perfection._ _ZUKO! STOP!_ I sigh out of frustration and head to the back of the ship to train, still attempting to not think of the beautiful girl whom I've injured.

Cornelia:

When I wake up, I wince at the pain in my side and instantly everything that happened comes flooding back into my mind. I don't know where I am, but something tells me that I am on that royal jerk's ship. Obviously because of the bed I am in, I know I'm in someone's room, just whose? Maybe his? Weird. Why would he treat his _prisoner _like this?

Just then, my thoughts are interrupted. I hear a yawn next to the bed, and slowly turn my head over there in shock. I see him, the royal jerk, lying on a couch next to the bed, apparently having slept there. He looks almost peaceful and pleasant and kind of, cute? Am I really thinking about how handsome this prince, who KIDNAPPED and HURT me is, even with that scar? I wonder who would be stupid enough to burn this guy. I see that his hair is in a ponytail. That is so weird for guys, I don't see how some girls go crazy for it. I wonder what his hair would look like down and if it wasn't shaved everywhere on his head but the ponytail. Perhaps that would actually even make him look cuter.

I feel a stabbing pain in my side again and I must've made some sound, because he jolts awake and instantly looks over at me. Why does he look so worried?

"You're awake," he says, looking a bit relieved. " Yeah," I say. "So are you." He sighs. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." After he says that he averts his gaze. I am completely shocked. I really wasn't expecting someone from the Fire Nation to ever apologize, let alone a prince. The people of the Fire Nation are often arrogant and only care about their pride.

He look at me again, before glancing at my side. "Since you are awake, we should probably redo your bandages. You yanked them off five times already. " He looks at my side, then back at me, apparently waiting for me to move the blanket. I do so, and see blush creep onto his cheeks. I look down, only to see myself in my normal airbending pants that aren't so poofy like Aang's and a wrap that was already around my chest. Where is my shirt? I blush too, realizing he is embarrassed because he is seeing me without a shirt on. He undoes the bandages that are currently wrapped around me and I hear a Faint gasp from both of us when we see my wound.

Zuko:

Pink. The burn has healed, but what remains is a scar. A scar, like mine. I've done to her what my father did to me. I have hurt her; and given her my own marking as a remembrance to the pain. I gasp when I first see the wound and I hear her reaction is the same. All I feel is guilt. Now this perfect girl has been given an imperfection and it's my entire fault. I don't know why, but I feel compelled to touch it. I want to see if it is really there; if I have really scarred her. I do so, with shockingly no objections from her. I sigh, closing my eyes, hating myself for doing this to her. Then I feel a hand on my face. I open my eyes to find her looking over my scar with the same interest.

The way she is looking me, though, is what keeps me from pushing her hand away. She looks so caring, as if she understands me and I am not the man who has harmed and kidnapped her. Again, I am ashamed of myself, so I let out another sigh. She instantly drops her hand. I want to tell her that I wasn't sighing because of her, but I realize that would be a huge mistake and I decide not to do so.

I've just started putting new bandages on her in silence when Uncle walks in.

Cornelia:

"Zuko, I see you and our guest are awake. Thank you for tending to her bandages," his Uncle says, walking in. "Yeah, thank you," I whisper to him. His eyes meet mine for a second, then he as he turns his back to me, he mutters, "You have nothing to thank me for. I hurt you." Then he leaves.

"I apologize for my nephew's actions, miss. For right now and the other day. He is often misunderstood. I hope you can forgive him," Zuko's uncle says. "Oh there's no need to apologize, he already did. AND I FORGIVE HIM!" I say loud enough that he would have to be deaf not to hear. "And besides, he was doing what he thought was right when he fought me. Though I probably still would've followed you all because he knew about Aang. And maybe also because of a whole 'Avatar thing'." "What do you mean, my dear?" "Well the first time the Air Nomads taught me to get into the Avatar State, Roku taught me a couple of rules of being an Avatar. One of the things he taught me was that if an Avatar gets into the Avatar State and it lasts for a really long time, then the Avatar basically will be in a coma. They can only be awoken by one person after that and apparently for me, that person is your nephew," I explain. He laughs. "I apologize miss! You don't even know who I am do you?! I am Iroh, Zuko's uncle." "I am Cornelia, it is a pleasure to meet you." Iroh walks over to a chair, picks up some clothes laying there, then comes over to the bed and hands them to me. "Here is a change of clothes for you, Miss Cornelia. When you are ready, you may head to the deck if you wish. Or if you are still feeling unwell, you may head to your new room; which is two doors down from right here." With that, he leaves.

I get dressed in the fire nation clothes, then head outside the room, to search for Iroh. I find the deck, and begin to walk around the side, when I hear people fighting. I slowly walk forward, to see what is going on. Zuko must be training against some of his men, because he is fighting them, but not really trying to harm them. Wait, is he shirtless? When I realize he is, I turn back around the corner, blushing. _Wow. That guy has some abs._ He also is a great fighter and bender, seeing how quickly he was taking down some of the men. _Why are you thinking about him like this Cornelia? This guy hurt you! By mistake,_ I think to myself, _and he apologized for it._ I shake my head, to try to clear it, then walk out from the side, only to trip over one of the guys Zuko battled. I go stumbling forward and someone catches me before I fall.

_Please don't let it be __**him,**_ I think, _please just have him have disappeared._ I look up, and find myself in the arms of Prince Zuko. Handsome, fit, shirtless Prince Zuko just caught me from my clumsy fall. I just really hope he doesn't notice the blush creeping onto my cheeks.

Zuko:

I was training. Still trying to get her out of my head, when suddenly I see someone trip over one of the men I had just beat. I run over and catch her from falling, though my rational mind was screaming at me to do the opposite. When I catch her, I feel her touch on my skin and remember that I always train shirtless. Of course I would think of that when she could look up at any second! Now she will see me blushing from the thought, and think it is because of her! _But it is because of her,_ I think to myself. Wow. I can't believe that already this girl has made me blush so much by me simply being near her. I don't think I've ever blushed this much for anyone, not even…Mai. I wonder how she is doing, and if she even still is friends with Azula. Hopefully not.

Looking back down at the girl, I see her head turn to me. Those eyes. They are enough to make me go speechless. _Stop it idiot! Say something! _"Um, are you alright?" I want to slap myself. _Grr! Of course she's fine, idiot! You just caught her!_ "Oh I'm fine!" she says quickly, as if she is trying to hide something. I narrow my eyes. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be lying down? Uncle! Gah! Where is he?" "He told me I could walk around, I really needed to and," she says, then she is interrupted by none other than my uncle. "Cornelia! Zuko! The cook has prepared some food for us and I have made us Jasmine Tea! Now let's go and sit down,….." He sees our position. "Are you sure she could not be something more to you, Zuko, like a lady-friend?" "NO!" she and I shout at the same time, both of our faces instantly red. Both of our faces? She gets up and hurries over to follow Uncle. Why would she be blushing? I'm the only one who hasn't been able to get her out of my mind, she can't possibly be thinking of me, can she?

Cornelia:

I push myself off of Zuko, and run over to Iroh. I just know he saw me blushing after Iroh said that. Grr! But, wasn't he blushing too? Why would he? I thought he hated me. I sit down across from Iroh and Zuko sits next to me. "So Cornelia, my nephew tells me you are an Avatar?" Iroh says to me, in an attempt to make some conversation at the silent table. "Yes I am. My brother is too. His name is Aang. I am the princess of the Southern Air Temple and he is the prince of the Western Air Temple," I state. This gets Zuko to look and actually seak to me. "You're a princess?" I look at him, a bit dumbfounded. "Yes, I already told you this, remember? Before you tried to capture me?" "I thought you were just teasing me for using my title," He mutters. "Prince Zuko, don't you think honorable princesses would not do such a thing? Miss Cornelia would have no reason to do such a thing to you if she did not know you," Iroh says. "But perhaps now that you know she is the same class as you, you will consider her as a possible lady-friend? She really is beautiful," he whispers rather loudly to Zuko. What is his with his obsession of Zuko finding a 'lady-friend'?

"Uncle! Stop saying that!" Zuko starts to rant and begins to get up to storm off, when his hand accidentally knocks into my side, the one with the burn. It is still tender, so I make a little yelp. Zuko is backdown at my side in an instant realizing what he did. "Cornelia! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to! Are you alright?" His concern for me after simply knocking into me confuses me. "I'm fine, Zuko. I'm alright. I just need to go lie down." Iroh begins to stand to help me, but Zuko does so instead and stops him. "Uncle, sit. I will take her to her room." Iroh does so. Zuko's hands don't leave from supporting me as I walk until we get to my room. I attempt to joke with him, because he seems to be distracted by something. "Hey, here's a good thing! At least you can sleep in your bed again, rather than that floor!" He snaps out of his daze and mumbles, "You said my name…," "Uh, yeah. I'm not supposed to call you Angry Guy or Ponytail, am I?" This earns a glare from him, but then he softens his eyes. I sigh. "Yeah. I guess you are right. That was the first time I've said your name, Zuko," I smirk from saying his name again. "But it is also the first time you have said mine." He looks at me again, like he wants to say something, but then he changes his mind. "Lie down. Get some rest. Uncle or I will be coming to check on you later. I mean, Uncle will." He turns and walks out of the room, muttering to himself something along the line of "stupid" as he closes the door. Why did he do that? I don't get why he acts so caring one minute then puts up a wall then next. All I do know is that I have got to find some way to stop thinking about the fire prince with the scar.

* * *

Okay I would like to explain something. With that Avatar thing Cornelia brought up, it is something of like all the rules the Avatars are taught when they are sixteen and told that they are an Avatar, by previous Avatars. Aang, hadn't been taught them yet, because the monks didn't wait to tell him, like they had for Cornelia. The previous Avatars knew whatwas going to happen to Cornelia and Aang, so they let Cornelia know of that rule and that there were a lot of rules; that both the children will learn throughout the journey.

And don't worry, Aang and Cornelia will meet up soon. Also, I will probably do some POV's of some of the other characters too, but all of them will link together in a way that I think flows in the story.

I hope that you all don't think I'm being weird by having both Cornelia and Zuko's thought about each other having their emotions flying all over the place. I just think that Zuko hasn't met many girls as abnormal as Cornelia, so right now he is attracted to her powers, her looks, and how she isn't afraid to stand up to him. Cornelia wasn't around many guys at the air temple that couldn't be thought of as family, and now she has actually met a pretty cute guy, but she doesn't want to have a slight crush on him because she knows that he doesn't want her and her brother for a good reason. So don't think that I am trying to rush their relationship, please. I am just trying to develop it, so don't expect so much Kissy-kissy-lovey-dovey stuff just yet. Lol!

Sorry for rambling on! Please review and possibly follow! A new chapter will be put up soon!


	3. Chapter 3, Kyoshi Island

Ch.3 Kyoshi Island

* * *

Well, I'm back! Sorry for the wait!  
To those of you who favorited or reviewed, thank you!  
More characters are showing up in this chapter!

Sorry if it moves really fast, I sped it up to go with how rushed the characters were feeling at some of the parts.  
And sorry that I am not going to go directly from episode to episode, the first season was awesome, but some parts were a bit 'meh' to me; like they could've gotten rid of it and it wouldn't have made a difference.  
I will also be switching some of them up a bit, but they will still flow through the story,and the characters' dialogue will be remotely similar; I just don't feel like watching every single episode just to rewrite it anyway (lazy moment -.-)

Guest: Thanks for saying the writing was good, but you didn't need to say all that other stuff.  
Honestly, I don't care where the name comes from, I just have always loved the name Cornelia.  
And I really think that when you are reading FANFICTION, you should try opening your IMAGINATION. Things involved in the story don't have to fit perfectly with the original storyline; they are all left up to the WRITER.  
And as the READER, I can see some people being Grammar Nazi's and stuff, but you should try reading the story for just the story, not the facts that tag along with it.

Okay, now that the little rant is out of the way,

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the OC's and my changes to the storyline :D

* * *

Zuko:

I left her in her room, seeing she was confused as I left.  
_Hopefully she doesn't think I hate her-_ ugh! What is wrong with me?  
I am going to hand both her and her brother over to my father when I catch her brother.  
She is only bait to help me gain my honor and be welcomed home.

With a sigh, I head to my room.  
_Good thing I captured her after Zhou found out that the Avatar was still alive; otherwise he would've stolen her from me and taken her onboard his ship and-_ I shudder at the thought.  
Knowing Zhou, he wouldn't treat Cornelia with the respect she deserves; being a princess after all.  
_He probably would've even tried to…. rape her.  
_I don't notice I've began to bend until I see smoke coming from my clenched fists.  
_Ugh. Why can't she just get out of my head already? I won't let that happen to her.  
I'll personally make sure no guy gets the chance to try anything with her.  
_I decide to meditate, hoping, but doubting, it would straighten my thoughts out.

I don't know how long it's been, but soon I am interrupted from my meditating by someone entering my room.  
"If you have nothing important to say, then you must leave now," I say.  
"I am afraid you will lose your temper from this news, Prince Zuko."  
"Uncle, you have taught me that a ruler must always keep a calm head, and so I shall. Now what is the news?"

He sighs, obviously doubting that I will control myself from losing my temper.  
"We seem to have lost the Avatar,"  
"WHAT?!"  
He doesn't even get to finish as I jump up in panic. I rush out of my room to run to make sure Cornelia is still there, still fine.  
I run into the hallway, and then one second later, I am on the ground,after running into someone.

Cornelia:

When I hear Zuko's shout, I spring out of bed and rush to make sure he is alright. As I rush into the hallway to run down two doors, I only see the blur of Zuko as we crash into each other.  
We both fall on the ground and moan from the impact. Obviously we both are dizzy, because we have trouble before we can actually stand up. Iroh tries to make sure neither of us falls again.

"Okay, now that I know which Avatar you mean, and what you mean by 'lost', how did the men lose him?" he says to his uncle, continuing the conversation they were previously talking about before that whole scene  
. I roll my eyes and scoff, "That's what that was just about? You thought your uncle was saying I was dead or something? Of course you've lost Aang! He is an Airbender. He doesn't travel by ship, he travels using his Air Bison, Appa. You had to shout and make me think someone was hurt all because you couldn't sit still long enough for your uncle to tell you which Avatar?"

He glares at me and opens his mouth to probably argue with me, but Iroh stops him before he even starts.  
"We may not know where the Avatar is, but we do know of places he has stopped by. And also, Zuko, when I speak of miss Cornelia, I will call her that from now on, and Aang will be the Avatar."  
This gets Zuko to growl as usual.

"He must be a master of evasion," Zuko growls.  
I roll my eyes at him once again, shake my head, sigh, and say," May I remind you Zuko, that 'he' is my little brother? He is only 13! He is still a kid!"  
He turns to me, shocked by my sudden outburst.

Iroh interrupts him again as he tries to open his mouth to argue.  
"Zuko, Cornelia, I think it is time for dinner."

We end up in Zuko's room again to have dinner and I send Zuko a glare that clearly states he shouldn't think about sitting next to me.  
We each sit on our own side of his table, and as our food is served, the cook whispers something to him.  
"The Avatar is on Kyoshi Island! Chart our course for there immediately!"  
He rises to follow the guards, and Iroh looks at the fish meant to be his nephew's meal, in longing.  
He asks Zuko, "Are you going to finish that?" which gets Zuko to storm back into the room and grab the plate.

"I was going to save that for later!"  
Iroh pouts, which pulls me out of my sour mood, and causes me to laugh.  
My laugh caused me to gain a confusing look from Zuko on his way out of the room.

Zuko:

She laughed.  
It was beautiful.  
It drew me to look at her.  
How could one simple teenage girl be so perfect?  
The only flaws she has are being an Avatar and the scar that I gave her. Her seeming so delicate, but having the possibility of being the best bender in the world makes her powerful and admirable.  
It makes her even desirable.  
I turn back around quickly and exit my room, with a newfound blush on my cheeks.

Cornelia rides with me as we enter the little town on Kyoshi Island. Everything appears way too quiet.  
Suddenly, these women appear in battle gear, ready to attack us. I do everything in my power to keep them from reaching us, but Cornelia ends up disappearing off the seat.  
Where is she?  
My main priority now becomes getting her back as I fight off the women with more ferocity.

Cornelia:

Zuko and I were being tossed about enough that I felt the need to get off the Fire Nation animal.  
I see a flash of orange to the side of a building as I airbend to the ground.

I follow where I saw the orange, and finally catch up to my little brother.

Aang:

Zuko is attacking this village in chase of me!  
I am trying to find both Katara and Sokka, so we can get on Appa and get out of here.

I even think I am having hallucinations. I could've sworn I saw Cornelia riding into the village with Zuko. But she couldn't of been there. She was with the rest of the monks in the air temple.

Thinking about her, my heart breaks a little.  
She and Gyatso were the only ones dear to me. And then she found out she was an Avatar.

I thought I was going to lose her to the world as she explored and learned her bending. She left for a couple of months, then came back.  
She had learned everything but firebending, telling me that no matter who was teaching her, she couldn't pick up on anything but the simple battle tricks and controlling the flame.  
She even told me of a dream she had that told her she would have to wait for her teachers to be able to bend fire.

Only weeks later, I was told I was an Avatar.

I get to the side of a building and someone appears in front of me, pulling me into a really tight hug.

Cornelia:

I finally catch up to Aang and do a flip, using a little air bending to land in front him, then I pull him into a hug, with tears in my eyes.

"Aang! I've missed you!"  
His eyes open wide and his mouth gapes as we pull out of the hug.  
"Cornelia?" He asks, almost in disbelief. "You're alive?"  
"Yeah, I –uh, kinda chased after you when you ran away," I start to explain.

Just then, we are interrupted by a girl.  
"Aang, what's going on?"  
"Katara!" Aang beams, causing me to become suspicious if he might like this girl.  
"This is my sister, Cornelia. Cornelia, this is my- um friend, Katara."

Just then two people in the warrior outfits run over to us.  
"Katara, Aang, we've got to get out of here!" one says, obviously a male. Why is he wearing a dress and make-up?

The other one begins to talk before I can ask, and that one is definitely female.  
"The other Kyoshi Warriors and I will distract them, you must get out of here safely!" Then she runs off.

Katara realizes I'm confused and explains.  
"Cornelia that was the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, Suki,"

The boy blushes, in a deeper shade than the make-up. He must like her.  
"And this is my brother, Sokka. Sokka, this is Aang's sister, Cornelia."

We say our greetings, then run to find Appa.  
When we reach him, he roars his special roar for Aang, then his eyes settle on me and he gives me a roar he used to only do when Aang and I would play with him at the air temple when we were kids. I run to him and pet him after giving him a hug.  
"Well Appa certainly remembers you!" Aang laughs.

They all get on to Appa and Sokka reaches down his arm to help pull me up.  
I stay on the ground, thoughts of Zuko and Iroh running through my brain.

"Cornelia, aren't you coming?" Aaang asks me.  
I shake my head saying, "No. I can't. Not yet. You and I are meant to have different journeys, but we will meet up again. And don't worry, I'm sure we can still stay in touch while we are apart."  
With that, I leave to find Zuko.

As I reach the entrance to the village, I see Appa fly overhead and water starts to be bended to get rid of the flames caused by a certain angry fire bender.

I smile then continue to look for Zuko. I reach the forest, and someone pulls me inside.  
I find myself face-to-face with the angry prince. He drags me all the way back to the ship, not letting go of my wrist once even when he realized I was coming willingly.  
I smiled. Apparently he does want me here. He doesn't even yell at the crew to instantly chase after the Avatar.

He takes me back to my room and begins to leave, but I stop him.

I hug him, smiling, happy that I got to see that Aang is alright and that he has found some great new friends.  
"Thank-you." I whisper. "I missed him so much."  
Then I let him go and kiss his cheek lightly, still leaving him surprised. His hand rises to his cheek and he walks out of my room in bewilderment.

I have pleasant dreams that night, of everything good that is happening and could happen, like Katara and Aang both confessing feelings for each other.

* * *

Okay, I know it was cute but boring.  
I needed to have her reunite with Aang and then start a little hint of them being able to mentally make sure the other is okay and what is going on.

So, if you will stick with me on this story, I am sure you will end up liking and possibly enjoying it as I do.  
Please Favorite? Follow? Review? Let me know you are even reading it and it isn't boring? LOL! :D


	4. Chapter 4, King Bumi

Hi guys! Sorry that I haven't updated! I just finished the chapter and I have been busy with school and family too. I promise to continue this story and hope you all like it!

Thank you everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or followed this story! It means a lot!

Welcome KaylaKissesKangaroos! If you want, you can review and give me some ideas for upcoming chapters, as can anyone else!

Disclaimer: To be brief, I don't own anything! Cornelia and Aran are mine and that is it!

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**Cornelia:**

I wake the next morning, feeling refreshed and happy, just to notice that it is strangely quiet.  
I resume getting ready for the day, putting on some new clothes and brushing my hair, then head out to see what is going on. If I were in any danger, I know that Zuko would've done anything to get me out of there, so I am not worried about anything being wrong happening.  
I walk out to the deck, about to go see if Zuko is training or if Iroh is making tea, when I see someone leaning against the railing.  
I decide to airbend myself over to where he is, to have the element of surprise, then I lean forward on the railing and look at him. He doesn't seem to notice, so I assume he must have zoned out.  
_Well how should I try and get him to notice without yelling at me?  
I mean, he seemed pretty angry last night, but then I dumbfounded him by- _HA!  
That had to be it!  
I lean towards him some more, then kiss him on the cheek like I had last night.  
His eyes go wide as he gasps, now noticing someone is next to him.

He looks as if he is about to yell, but realizes it was just me and just mutters, "You frightened me."  
"Well you were the one zoning out," I say, playfully taunting him for an argument.  
"Well you had to shock me last night and leave me dumbfounded, so I had every right to be standing there wondering why you did it. It was just supposed to be used as some sort of trick huh? You thought you would trick me into falling for you of all people, so you could escape and hide your brother!"  
He smirks.  
I feel my face get hot, this time out of real anger.  
How dare he say that!  
I hadn't put any thought behind it at all!  
I was just using that small kiss on the cheek as a 'thank- you' to him and this is how he treats me for it?  
"I wouldn't trick you like that, I wouldn't trick anyone like that! If I wanted to, I could've escaped yesterday with Aang! I found all of them, I could've just rode of on Appa with the rest of them! I only stayed to make sure you would be okay! If I hadn't, who knows if you would've gotten yourself captured or not? I was worried!"  
My eyes widen after I admit that. Of all the arguments I could've said, why did I have to mention that?

Zuko:

"I wouldn't trick you like that, I wouldn't trick anyone like that! If I wanted to, I could've escaped yesterday with Aang! I found all of them, I could've just rode of on Appa with the rest of them! I only stayed to make sure you would be okay! If I hadn't, who knows if you would've gotten yourself captured or not? I was worried!" she continued in our argument.  
I thought I was shocked by the kiss last night and the one here, but she just blew me out of the water with that.  
_She was worried about me?  
That is why she didn't leave with her brother?  
_She was shocked she had said that too, judging by the way her eyes widened and she snapped her mouth shut.

"You were worried? You? Ha! If anyone was worried it was me! You completely vanished after those women attacked! I thought they had taken you and tried to do everything I could to get you back! I thought you were in trouble, so as soon as I saw you I grabbed your wrist and brought you back to the ship to make sure you were safe! I was worried about you!" I yelled, still in the rush of our argument.  
"And to top it off, once I got you back here, you hugged and kissed me, throwing my rational mind out the window!"

During this interaction, we have been navigating our faces closer to each other and our noses brush as she snaps her eyes back to me in a glare. "Well you,…!"  
Our eyes lock, and for a brief moment, I consider leaning in just a little bit more. I even start to make that move, when of course, we are interrupted. "Zuko! Cornelia! What is the reason behind all of the yelling?"  
I close my eyes, frustrated and confused and begin to pull back, when I am pushed.  
I snap open my eyes to see Cornelia glaring at me before she storms off.

**Aang:**

Katara, Sokka, Appa, Momo, and I reach Omashu and we see guards in front, and a guy selling rotting cabbages trying to get access into Omashu. Katara quickly decides that I should have a disguise to be on the safe side.  
I use some of Appa's fur to make a wig and mustache and use Momo to form a hump in my back; ending with making me look like an old man.  
Everything at the gate goes by pretty smoothly, and we are granted access to Omashu.

I remember the times Cornelia and I had here, hanging out with our friend Bumi, and end up convincing Katara and Sokka into doing one activity Bumi and I loved, that Cornelia had thought up and Bumi changed to be more fun for the both of us: sledding the mail chutes.  
We crash into the Cabbage Man again, destroying his cart and sending his cabbages everywhere.

Next we are taken to the king of Omashu to see what our punishment will be.  
The king shocked us, by being extremely nice, that is, until right now.  
I woke to find Katara and Sokka missing.  
The king had me brought before him and when I commanded to have my friends back, he had Rock Crystal rings put on them and forced me to do his three challenges.

"It looks like it's lunchtime and I'm hungry, but I seem to have misplaced the key to my lunchbox. Oh there it is! Could you get it and bring it to me?" the senile old man asks, overly casually.  
I think that this is going to be an easy challenge; all I have to do is Dive into the waterfall and climb up the ladder to get the key.  
I do so, and the king says, "Ah, climbing the ladder! Nobody's tried that before!"  
Soon after, I am thrown out due to the force of the water. I continue trying, and finally I get sick of his taunting and an idea form in my mind.

I break off a chunk of a stalagmite and throw it into the waterfall.  
It cuts the chain, taking the key with it, and lodges itself in the wall above the king's head.  
"Enjoy your lunch," I say with a brash tone, still furious that he is making me do this.  
"Now give me my friends back!"

"Tsk tsk tsk. I still have two more challenges for you!"  
With that, we head to the next task.

"I seem to have lost my pet Flopsy, could you find him for me?"  
I jump down to where he has sent me to find his pet, and I see a floppy-eared rabbit-mouse.  
"I found him!" I yell up at him.  
"Good! Now bring him to me, I want to hug him!"  
"Here Flopsy," I say, reaching for him, when I hear crumbling behind me on the ceiling and what sounds like thunder stampeding behind me.  
I turn around, and I see a giant gorilla-rabbit! Flopsy hops away, and I chase after him, shouting, "Flopsy come back!"

**General POV**:

As the gorilla-rabbit continues to chase Aang, part of the ceiling gives way as someone falls through and lands right where the gorilla-rabbit first stopped.

A boy, about Sokka's age, sits up out of the rubble with a goofy smile on his face.  
He has the same shade of skin as Aang, chocolate-brown eyes, brown shaggy, messy hair, and some freckles sprinkled along the tops of his cheeks and nose.

He looks over to where Aang is being chased and hears Aang calling the rabbit-mouse "Flopsy".  
He turns to where the king is standing and begins to say, "Why is he calling the rabbit-mouse Flopsy, King Bu-" when he is cut off by a rock knocking him over.  
He looks back at the king, who just winks at him and raises a finger to his lips.  
He earthbends himself up to where the king is to stand alongside him.  
"Children, this is my dear friend, Aran. He has been my apprentice since I met him when his parents came to visit me and ask me about teaching earthbending to a blind child who was the child of a family they were friends with. But they never told me who the family was or even the child's name, it was mighty strange.."  
"We don't care about that right now! We just want to be let go!" Sokka yelled at him.  
"For once, I actually agree with you, Sokka. Let us go now!"

Aran moves forward, his eyes narrowing after hearing them yell at his teacher, when the king stops him.  
"You didn't say please, so not until the avatar is done with my tasks."  
Then he laughs, making Aran's mood go back to its usual magnanimous state.  
They both turn around to watch Aang, ignoring the displeased shouts behind them.

**Aang's POV:**

I chase after Flopsy as he dives for a crevice in the wall. I reach as far as I can, still calling Flopsy's name, and the giant gorilla-rabbit continues to run towards me, getting more excited each time I call for Flopsy.  
_Wait a minute_, I think as it comes closer, "Flopsy?" and it stops right in front of me and sits.  
"Flopsy!" I yell, hugging it.  
We hear someone whistle and Flopsy returns to his owner, who scratches his belly as the boy Katara tells me's name is Aran flops himself onto Flopsy to hug him.

After that, we head to an arena for the final challenge.  
"For your final task, pick two people to battle. But pick wisely."  
With that, four of the scariest looking men I have ever seen step out from behind the king. I think about it, and an idea forms in my head.  
"So you're saying that whoever I point to, I have to battle?"  
"Choose wisely," he warns.  
I pause, finally deciding.  
"I choose to go against you," I point at Aran.  
"And you!" I point at the king.  
He chuckles "Wrong choice!"  
Then he stands straight up, stretching and tearing his clothes, which leave a well-trained and strong earthbender standing in his place.

Aran shoots me onto the arena by suddenly pushing a rock up below me and they both earthbend themselves down. Aran stomped his foot, and a suit of rock grew onto his body. He rushed forward along with the king, shooting rocks at me as I evaded them.  
As the king shot a bigger rock at me, I jumped into the air. Aran, realizing how slowly he was moving due to being encased by rock and shot the rock at me in the form of a boulder in my mid-jump. It hit me and I fell.  
I got up and began to run toward the king, who started walking back and forth, earthbending rocks to make me serpentine the path he wanted me to go.  
I bended an air scooter and rode along the wall, sending an air gust his way, which he blocked with a rock wall. He creates a wave of rocks that chase me. Aran begins making tremors, which cause me to be affected even more by the rock wave and sends me falling off my air scooter.  
Aran then shoots a line of rocks towards the wall I am standing in front of.  
I run from them and the king creates a quicksand pit beneath me.  
As I try to get out they both send rocks toward me. I jump over them and send a gust of wind at the king, which rams him into a wall.  
Aran sees this and chases after me.  
He breaks off some of the wall and a ledge above the arena and shoots that at me.  
I freak out and create a tornado, which catches it and sends it to Aran and the king.  
They both go flying into a wall and create a hole.  
Aran then comes stumbling out, picks up a rock, and sends it at me. I blow a wind that causes him to trip and land flat on his face.

The king comes out of the hole in the wall, clapping.  
"Good job, Avatar. You beat both of us."  
"I don't want your congratulations; now give me my friends back!"  
"Very well."  
All three of us go back to the top of the arena when the king turns to me.  
"Just one more task," he says.  
I am instantly infuriated.  
"WHAT! I completed all the tasks you told me to do! Free my friends now!"  
He remains unphased.  
"After this task; I want to ask you a question."  
I am about to interrupt him when Katara and Sokka hurry to tell me to just do it.  
"Fine. What is the question?"  
"What is my name?"  
With that, he leaves me to think about what his name might be.  
"Well, let's think about it, he is an earthbender, so what is an earth nation name?" Katara says.  
Then, Sokka says, "I got it! Rocky!"  
I tell him "No, it wouldn't be that simple. Every one of those tasks required me to think outside of the box."  
Realization clicks in.  
"I know his name," I say, then we go to the king.

"So have you figured out what my name is yet?" he asks.  
"Yes. I should have realized this quickly, and I am sorry for not, King Bumi."  
He grins and we hug.  
He heads over to Sokka and Katara and breaks the crystal.  
He breaks a chunk off and, while chuckling, says, "The funny thing about this crystal is that it is rock candy!"  
He begins to eat it.  
We decide to stay there for one more night.

**Cornelia's POV:**

How dare he accuse me of being like that!  
It has been hours since that and I am still furious. I refuse to come out of my room.  
Iroh brought me dinner and tea and dined with me. He tried to convince me to make up with Zuko, but I still refused to.  
He must be trying to make Zuko do the same, because he has been standing right outside my door for a while.  
He finally knocks.  
"What?" I say as more of a way to be rude to him.  
I hear him sigh as he opens the door, which I push to close.  
"Whatever is so important for you to say you can say through the door."  
He sighs again and puts his head on the door.  
"Look. I am sorry. I shouldn't have treated you like that. Uncle spoke to me and-"  
"And you just decided to apologize because he said so. That isn't a real apology, so just leave me alone."  
That gets him angry, of course.  
"Fine! If you won't accept my apology, then you can just stay in there!" And he storms off to his room.

Later, as I sleep, Aang and I connect our thoughts and he shows me what became of the air temples and everyone living there.  
He tells me to not mourn too badly, just remember the good times we knew.  
With that, he left me to my thoughts and I awoke, crying.  
I know that it wasn't just the firelord wanting to find the Avatar wasn't the only reason the air nomads were destroyed.

It only makes me cry harder to know that it was partially my fault for everyone's deaths.

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Again, favorite, follow, review, something! I just want to know you are there!


	5. Chapter 5

Wow. Now that took forever! I am truly sorry I haven't been updating! I had writer's block! Hopefully things will start picking up with this story, and I will be posting up new stories too (especially one for Rise of the Gaurdians a Jack Frost/ girl Cupid)

So, exciting things have been happening. I auditioned for my school's production of Legally Blonde, and though I didn't get the character I wanted (Serena) I am going to be Chutney. So I get to yell on the stage! And put real acting in to it, instead of focusing on singing! I also am scattered throughout the show singing as minor roles, but that is my big one!

Still looking for any ideas of where to go with this story if you have them.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's, though I wish I did!

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Normal POV:

The GAang spends the night at King Bumi's then they prepare to leave the next day. Aang offers up his challenge for Bumi and they all sled down the mail chutes once more. As they pack up their belongings and put them on Appa, Aran runs up to them, carrying his own bag.

"Aang, Sokka, Katara!" he shouts, catching their attention.

Aang looks happy, thinking he knows what is going to happen.

"Hi, Aran, what are you doing here?" Sokka says (oh so bluntly).

"Well, Aang needs to learn earthbending after water, right?" Aran asks.

They nod.

"So, until you can come back and learn from Bumi, I could teach you a few things! And, if we go to the earth kingdom back to my home, I can see my old friends!"

Katara thinks this over and practically forces Sokka to allow Aran to join them. They set off, with Aran joking about Sokka's long face.

Cornelia's POV:

When I wake up, I check my door and sure enough, it is locked. I get up and stretch, planning to meditate until Iroh checks up on me, when I hear voices in the hallway.

"Maybe you and Cornelia have just had a simple misunderstanding!"

"I attempted to apologize last night, but she wouldn't accept it, so I must've been right! If she wants to keep me out, I'll keep her in!"

Ah. So Uncle is still trying to make Zuko let me out. I sigh, walk over to my bed, and lie back down; staring at the ceiling. I still can hear Zuko and Iroh arguing over this.

I don't know how long it has been, but apparently I fell asleep. I don't hear Zuko or Iroh in the hallway.

Someone does open my door, however and brings in food and tea then closes the door and sits down themselves. Thinking it is Iroh, I begin to open my eyes and look over, trying to put a small smile on my face although I have been crying. All my dreams have been plagued with memories of the loved ones who are now dead.

The first thing my eyes fall upon, though, happens to not be Iroh, but instead Zuko.

Zuko's POV:

When she turns over, I am confused. She looks like she's been crying. She is even trying to force a small smile.

She must've thought it was Uncle, not me. Her eyes narrow as she realizes it is me and she sighs in frustration and turns over.

"Just go away, Zuko," she says, obviously tired.

"You've been crying," I say, knowing I am concerned.

She still doesn't say anything, so I decide to be the one to speak.

"I already tried to apologize to you last night, would you just accept it? There is no need to cry about it. I didn't know that just thinking something about you would make you feel like this, it's.."

She interrupts, laughing.

"You actually think I would cry over you being an idiotic firebug? You want to know why I actually have been crying?"

Though angry with the little remark, I keep quiet and nod.

She sighs, closes her eyes, then looks at me again.

"When were you planning on telling me?" she asks.

"Telling you what?"

"That the fire nation destroyed my home!" she yells, startling me.

"My friends, mine and Aang's parents, every airbender besides us, gone! I knew a confrontation with the fire nation was coming, but I didn't know it would go that far!" she continues, beginning to cry again.

How didn't she know that the air nomads weren't existant anymore? Well, other than her and her brother.

"And everyone is gone because of your people! I hate you! I really, really hate you!" she cries, pounding my chest, then she collapses into my arms crying.

I hold her there until she begins to stop crying.

Why does she have to do this to me? I shouldn't be worried about her, but each time I try to be cold to her, I feel ashamed.

Cornelia's POV:

I yelled at him for what his family did.

Ugh.

Why do I always have to be on the edge with my emotions around him?

Now here I am after yelling that I hate him crying in his arms. I have begun to calm down and I notice he hasn't said anything. In fact, he is even holding me and rubbing my back, comforting me.

I pull my head back from his chest and look at him, finding him already looking at me.

He doesn't look angry; he actually looks worried, even a little ashamed?

"I am sorry, Cornelia, for what happened to your people, but you have to believe me, if I had been there I Would've-"

I interrupt him by hugging him. "I know. You would've stopped it," I say.

I don't want him to feel ashamed, though he should for what his people did.

"Zuko, I.."

"Ahem," someone interrupts me.

"Uncle!" Zuko, says surprised, straightening himself.

I chuckle at this.

"Prince Zuko, let us leave Cornelia to her thoughts, I must speak with you," he says, smiling.

They leave, and Zuko makes sure the door is unlocked for me. At this, I smile and get myself neatened up.

Then I head up to the deck to enjoy some fresh air.

Zuko's POV:

Uncle takes me to my room to speak with me. As we leave Cornelia, I make sure she sees me unlock her door, and she smiles at me. When we get to my room, Uncle shuts the door behind me.

"Prince Zuko, I see you have made up with Cornelia, and I am glad for this,"

Why do I sense there's a but?

"But, I am concerned with how much the two of you argue. She is changing you, Zuko. That is obvious, but it is your decision whether it is for the better or worse."

"Uncle, she is not changing me. I am not stopping my mission of capturing her brother. Though you know that I respect the dead and I respect that she must mourn over the loss of her people."

"I just hope you realize just what you are beginning to form."

With that, our discussion is over and I head up to the deck to train.

I have just gotten to the deck when I see Cornelia bending both fire and water. I am amazed at how she does that.

The water is flying through the air around the fire then she bends the fire to form around the water.

"Hey Firebug," she says, snapping me out of my trance.

"You came up to train, huh? I'll spar with you if you want."

She wants to spar with me? I just walk forward and begin to train alone.

I make a move to bend fire and she steps right in front me.

"What? Are you afraid to be beaten by a girl?" she instigates, with a little spark in her eyes.

"And just what makes you think you can beat me?" I say.

"Because I'm an Avatar?" she guesses.

"Huh. Just because you're an Avatar doesn't mean you are more powerful than me."

"Yeah, but it does help!" And with that, I chuckle and begin to spar with her.

Normal POV:

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Appa, Momo, and Aran reach a forest.

They start looking around when they see a boy earthbending.

Sokka warns that he might be an enemy and Katara runs forward shouting a "Hey there" at him and he runs away.

"Well that was strange," Aran says.

When he sees the looks he's being given, he continues.

"Well, earthbenders are very welcoming and happy around here, it's only when you fully get to the Earth Kingdom that they begin to be sticks in the mud. That guy was afraid of something."

Then Sokka, being forever jolly says, "Hm. We travel around on a giant bison, what could be so frightening about that?"

"Well, we know one thing," Aang says. "He was running to some place in that direction, so there is probably a village around here somewhere."

"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara says, happily.

They find the village and find the boy. They find out his name is Haru and that it is illegal for people to earthbend in this village.

"Well so much for me having fun here." Aran says, boldly.

(Skipping ahead) Haru and Katara talk and save an old man who gets trapped in the mines. Haru gets captured, and so do Katara and Aran. (Aran wanted to make sure Katara would be alright.)

They go through everything and save the earthbending prisoners and Katara loses her necklace.

Zuko's ship comes by the prison and they go onboard and find out about the escape. Zuko finds Katara's necklace and Cornelia makes the mistake of mentioning she saw Katara wearing it.

* * *

Okay okay I know that las part was lame, but I couldnt think of very many changes to make to that episode. And it would taken longer to type up that whole episode, and that would just be toomuch for me.

Please follow, review, favorite, and/or help me with ideas! Thanks!


	6. Chapter 6

Hello, my faithful readers who I now promote to being the best people in the universe for staying with me through the rough patches in this story!

So I hope you all, if your Spring Break was this week, like mine (if you still go to school), or not, have been having a great week! I also hope that everyone celebrating Easter has the best one yet!

Again, like I say almost everytime, sorry for the wait! I'm trying to hurry throught the story to get it posted up fast, but I want to make it enjoyable everytime for you guys!

I saw other stories are doing the whole Character Questions thing, so if you all want, I'll do it too!

With anyone who PM's me, or leaves a comment, or follows or favorites this story, I will try to hurry and get more chapters up faster to comment back to you. (As far as the PM thing goes, I will get back to you as soon as I can, including with the stories back and forth stuff)

Okay, with that blabbing out of the way, onto the story! Hope you like it, I think I actually got it to be longer this time!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but OC's and ideas and wishes of owning this!

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_**Normal POV:**_

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Appa, Momo, and Aran reach a forest.

They start looking around when they see a boy earthbending.

Sokka warns that he might be an enemy and Katara runs forward shouting a "Hey there" at him and he runs away.

"Well that was strange," Aran says.

When he sees the looks he's being given, he continues.

"Well, earthbenders are very welcoming and happy around here, it's only when you fully get to the Earth Kingdom that they begin to be sticks in the mud. That guy was afraid of something."

Then Sokka, being forever jolly says, "Hm. We travel around on a giant bison, what could be so frightening about that?"

"Well, we know one thing," Aang says. "He was running to some place in that direction, so there is probably a village around here somewhere."

"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara says, happily.

They find the village and find the boy. They find out his name is Haru and that it is illegal for people to earthbend in this village.

"Well so much for me having fun here." Aran says, boldly.

_**(Skipping ahead)**_

Haru and Katara talk and save an old man who gets trapped in the mines. Haru gets captured, and so do Katara and Aran. _**(Aran wanted to make sure Katara would be alright.)**_

They go through everything and save the earthbending prisoners and Katara loses her necklace. Zuko's ship comes by the prison and they go onboard and find out about the escape. Zuko finds Katara's necklace and Cornelia makes the mistake of mentioning she saw Katara wearing it.

Aang and his friends come to a forest that has been burned down. Aang begins to blame himself for not being there to stop it from happening when Katara comforts him by showing him an acorn and telling him that it means the forest will grow back.

Then, Aran earthbends to form small holes in the ground to place all the other acorns they find, Aang airbends the acorns into the holes, Aran covers the holes, and Katara waterbends, spraying the spots where the acorns are in order to help them grow. Aang keeps the acorn Katara showed him as a reminder to himself of his mission to help the world heal.

Suddenly, a man arrives and asks for the help of the avatar.

They come to a quiet village, named Senlin Village and find it in bad shape after a spirit known as Hei Bai has been ruining it.

The avatar appears to be the only one who can help as he is the only one who is a bridge between their world and the spirit world.

Aang waits till nightfall for the spirit, and just as he is thinking of returning to the others, the spirit arrives. It doesn't listen to Aang as he chases after it. Sokka runs to help, but is taken by the spirit.

As Katara sees her brother get taken, she begins to run after him and the spirit, but Aran stops her and holds her as she cries, attempting to comfort her. Aang, worried for Sokka, chases after them on his glider, but Hei Bai returns to the spirit world.

_**Zuko's POV:**_

I had us stop to get more supplies for the ship and Uncle and Cornelia went off somewhere. Now I am looking for both of them because we are almost ready to leave again.

"Hi Firebug," I hear from above me.

I look up to find Cornelia smiling down at me, before she returns to resting her head against the tree she is sitting in.

"Ah, hello Prince Zuko," says Uncle.

I turn my head to where I heard his voice, and see my uncle relaxing in a pool of water he appears to be heating himself.

"What are you doing?!" I say.

"Relaxing, why don't you join me?" he says calmly.

"We don't have time for this," I say. "We're leaving! Uncle get out!"

"Ooh, not a good choice," Cornelia says, turning away and shielding her eyes.

Uncle stands, revealing he is naked and I quickly shield my eyes and turn away.

"Actually relax some more. Be ready to leave in thirty minutes or we are leaving without you." I say, while trying to make myself think that event never happened.

"Hahahaha, I think that I'll come with you, Firebug," Cornelia laughs, getting down from the tree and joining me. "It might be a safer option."

_**Normal POV:**_

Iroh ends up falling asleep.

Suddenly, Earth Kingdom soldiers come by and capture him. They realize who he is and berate him for his failure at the 600 day siege of Ba Sing Se.

After a while, Iroh forms a plan in his head to help his nephew find him.

He begins to act tired, falls off the ostrich-horse he is on, and "loses" one of his sandals as the soldiers help him up and onto the ostrich-horse again.

_**Cornelia's POV:**_

It's been well past thirty minutes and Iroh still hasn't appeared.

I'm beginning to get worried and I want to search for him.

I head back to where I last saw Zuko on the deck and he is still there. I come to stand beside him and see that he is holding the rail tightly.

His face is shielded of his emotions, but his eyes give him away. They show that he is obviously worried.

"Zuko, I think we should go.."

"I know. Come on."

He grabs my hand and we go get things ready to find Iroh.

We set off and come to the pools where Iroh was relaxing. Iroh isn't there, and the pool he was in has rocks pointing up.

"Maybe there was a rockslide, sir," one of the men suggests.

I almost scoff at how naïve that sounds.

"Rocks don't slide uphill," Zuko growls. "My uncle has been captured by earthbenders."

"Then I guess we should go get him back," I cut in. "Unless you want them to hold him as their prisoner longer, of course."

His glare shifts to me, but he doesn't say anything. While Zuko commands for the men to go back to the ship, we get onto his rhinoceros-creature_ (forgot what they were sorry!)_ and then we set off to find Iroh.

We come upon a sandal lying in the road.

"Do you think it's Iroh's?" I ask.

"It might be," he says as he gets off and picks the sandal up.

Then, strangely, he decides to smell it, and pulls his face away from it in disgust.

"Yeah, that's Uncle Iroh." He earns a laugh from me despite how worried I am for Iroh.

_**Normal POV:**_

The guards are traveling with Iroh, continuing their mocking about his failure to seize Ba Sing Se. He then decides to ignore them, so he looks around.

He looks into the sky just as Aang is flying past on a dragon- recognizable to the old man as Avatar Roku's dragon.

Aang meanwhile, obviously in the spirit world, had entered it without the realization he had.

One moment he knew he was chasing the spirit that took Sokka, then he lost track of it. He had raced back to the village to apologize to Katara, only to find no one could see him.

He realized he was in the spirit world and tested trying to airbend, which failed.

Then the dragon came speeding in.

Aang believed it was there to attack him and began to flee, only to have the dragon stop him, get him on its back, and fly off.

While flying, Aang was unaware Iroh could see him, nor did he know that Iroh was there. They flew into the Fire Nation, to an island, and to the top of a temple inside an enclosed room. The dragon dropped him off, then lied down.

In front of Aang was a statue of Avatar Roku.

He was confused, thinking Roku would appear to speak to him, but he did not.

"Why isn't he speaking to me?" Aang asked the dragon. "How long do I have to wait for him to speak to me?"

Then, time began to speed up to show when Avatar Roku would be able to speak to him. On the floor the sun cast shadows. When it cast the shadow on the day of an eclipse, Aang gasped. His real body was too far from the temple! How would he get there in time?

"What is so important right now the Avatar Roku needs to see me?"

The dragon began to appear as if it would attack Aang, but it made an orb that showed Aang a comet. The sight of the comet frightened Aang, but he knew he wouldn't be given any more information until he traveled to the temple himself. Aang and the dragon left the temple and brought Aang to his real body. Aang then rushed to get to the village so he could still help it before he had to leave.

While he flew by, he ended up passing over Zuko and Cornelia.

Cornelia looked up and loosened her grip on Zuko a bit more, causing him to wonder what she was doing. He followed where her eyesight was laid on.

"The Avatar," he gasped.

He stopped, debating whether to chase the Avatar or continue following the trail his uncle was taken and, just as Cornelia was about to slap him for even thinking about leaving his uncle behind, he continued following the trail.

Cornelia smiled to herself because he had chosen to ignore regaining his honor for the safety of his uncle.

Aang went back to the village with no problem. In little time, the spirit showed up again and began destroying homes. Aang then got it to follow him, still attacking homes and just as it was getting close to catching him, he stopped running.

It stood in front of him, growling. Aang then had an "Avatar moment" and saw the spirit of the creature, seeing it really was a panda.

An idea popped in his head and he showed the spirit the acorn Katara had shown him. The spirit took it as Aang explained that the acorns meant the forest was going to grow back and the spirit turned itself back into a panda.

It disappeared into the forest, growing trees behind it and releasing the people it had taken, including Sokka.

The GAang all ran to welcome back Sokka, who, being Sokka, ruined the moment by stating how much he had to go pee.

Iroh decided to be difficult with the guards.

He got them to get off and go to tighten his shackles when he heated them up to burn the unlucky guard about to perform the task. He then got himself off the ostrich-horse by falling, and began to roll downhill, until the guards caught him.

"This one's more trouble than he's worth," a guard said.

So they took him to a clear area where they were going to make sure he wouldn't be able to use his firebending anymore_** (aka smashing the rock on his hands).**_

Just as they were about to bring down the rock, they were interrupted.

_**Cornelia's POV:**_

Well, that was pretty impressive, I think as I see Zuko break his uncle's chains

. This distracts the guards, so I earthbend the rock away from Iroh and Zuko and over one of the guards heads. I drop it, knocking that guard out cold.

The guards still don't realize that one of them is unconscious as they begin to speak.

"Ha. So you're free. It still is only you two against the five of us" one says.

"You might want to double-check on that," I say flipping over their heads and landing on the other side of Iroh.

"Because to me, it looks like it's three powerful benders against four, plus one knocked out, Earth Kingdom guards."

He glances around and I see worry begin to crawl its way onto his expression.

It doesn't take much, and we defeat the guards easily. In the battle, I heard Zuko and Iroh bond, including Zuko telling Iroh that he was a great teacher!

"Okay, now can you put on some clothes?" Zuko says, causing Iroh and I to laugh.

After Iroh is dressed, we head back to the ship to have a well-deserved rest.

_**Aang's POV:**_

After everyone has fallen asleep, I prepare Appa for us to leave.

Just as I'm trying to get Appa to attempt to leave, rock forms around his hooves.

I look up to see Aran, trying to stop us from leaving. Soon after, Katara, Sokka, and some of the village people appear behind him. He releases his hold on Appa, who he realizes isn't going anywhere, and they begin to get on to me about trying to leave them.

I explain to them why I must leave, that I don't want to put them into danger by heading to the fire nation with them, but they won't listen. They insist that they don't care about the danger; they only want to know I'm safe by them being there too.

Aran says he only wants to go to have a little dangerous fun with the firebenders. This lightens up the mood.

The village leader gives us some supplies before we take off.

On our way to the fire nation, I can't help but feel extremely worried, not only for the vision of the comet from before, but for Sokka, Katara, and Aran willing to risk their safety for my own- _Just like Cornelia_- I think to myself as we pass the burnt forest, with little sproutlings just beginning to pop out of the ground.

* * *

Okay finally! Haru's episode is a good one for Katara's speeches, but other than that, it kind of bores me and I couldn't think of much to add.

_**Coketree27**_- Although Aran and Toph would be pretty cute together, and because Toph has a thing for guys Sokka, Zuko, and Aran's age, sorry, but I don't think I'm going to make it be like that. Right now, Aran has a bit of an attraction to Katara and had a childhood crush on Toph while they both lived near each other in the Earth Kingdom. He probably will get along with Jet for the most part, jealousy of Katara crushing on Jet is obviously needing to be there, but they both are alike- they flirt A LOT. One girl he luckily won't be crushing on, though, is Cornelia (He doesn't want two Avatars after him if he breaks her heart.)

I see him as being the one who is overly playful in their group, much like a male Tai Lee, so I kind of saw them ending up together in some way. Don't get discouraged though! I might change my mind and make all the couple be to everyone's liking!

Which remind's me! I need some help! I really like the SukixSokka pairing, but if you all believe I should somehow keep Princess Yue alive, I need to know! Just comment or PM me with any ideas for anything that can help the story!

And thank you_** E**_ for helping to explain to a guest reader that I was right about the diretions of the Air Temples! But also, that Air Temple on an island just off from Republic City in the Legend of Korra and the Republic City were created after all of this, I believe! I definitely will continue the story and have Zuko find his mother, a couple of the couples get hitched, maybe some kids born, and they will work to build both Republic City and that Air Temple!

Again, thank you all for giving me a chance with this story.

Please comment, favorite, follow, PM, SOMETHING! And please start sending in the CHARACTER QUESTIONS!


	7. Chapter 7

Hi guys! Sorry for the wait! Finally, I have nothing planned for summer so far, so I will be loading up more chapters! I am thrilled to see that so many people are still staying with me in this story and so many newcomers enjoy the story! Thank you!

So, I do recall one person thought that my author's notes are too long and the chapters of the story are too short, so I'm sorry and I'll try to fix that. And I'll put in more detail for you guys that wanted that or more speaking, though I find thoughts more interesting.

Disclaimer: (me in misery) I do not own anything this awesome. If so I would be living the best life.

* * *

**Normal POV:**

The people of the village start to head back to their homes as they watch the GAang leave, with only the leader of the village remaining outside of his home, still watching the direction the avatar left.

"So there still is hope in the world, but the weight of the world must sit on that young boy's shoulders," he says to himself. He turns and heads up the steps to his house and sits, sensing something will happen that he must be there for shortly.

Meanwhile, Zuko received more recent information that there was a spirit attacking this village.

When his uncle asked him why he wanted to go to a village that is under attack by a spirit, he simply replied, "The avatar is the only person who can make the spirit stop attacking, seeing as one of them is with us, her brother will probably go there to help."

"You know, you can stop talking about me and your ideas of where my brother is when I am less than three feet away from you," Cornelia pops in, sitting across from Iroh, playing Pai Sho with him.

"Even though you may be right, Aang does care about people and he may already have experience with the spirit world, so he would want to help both the spirit and the people of the village," she says, making her last move and leaving Iroh with a look of shock for her defeating him.

"Besides, even if he isn't there or doesn't know about the attacks, or has already gotten the spirit to stop attacking, then I can help the village, so yeah, let's go." Cornelia leaves the room, Zuko looking after her.

Iroh, accepting that the teenage girl is wise for her apparent age and for defeating him in Pai Sho, looks to his nephew as he stands, seeing his nephew stare in the direction the beautiful, talented girl went, and a small smile forms on his face.

"You know Prince Zuko, a lotus is a form of beauty and peace. It gives us the natural beauty of all four elements. It is still and calm, as a pond. It is soft and quiet, as the wind. It grows from the earth. It also resembles one's inner fire. The most special thing about a lotus though, is that it will only show the true beauty of its bloom to the one it deems worthy to admire it, so as to show that one the admiration and love in return."

He leaves his nephew to wonder just what he was talking about with that proverb, knowing that someday soon; it will make sense to both Cornelia and Zuko.

Later, Zuko, Iroh, and Cornelia enter the village. Cornelia and Iroh find out that Aang already solved the problem and brought peace to the village and the spirit.

Zuko spots an old man sitting on some steps in front of his home and rudely commands the old man to tell him where the avatar went.

"Well don't you already know where one is, I mean you are traveling with one," the old man says to Zuko, not wavering. Cornelia's attention is immediately grasped.

How could this man tell she is an avatar? He could possibly tell that she and Aang are related, seeing as how big their eyes are, and how they both are airbenders, and that they do already look like brother and sister.

The old man remains quiet, save for saying that the avatar has left for the fire nation, knowing that the teenager with whom he is speaking is the banished prince of the fire nation.

They leave, with Cornelia quiet and confused and Zuko give his crew the commands to set their course for the fire nation.

"Come on boy, we need to fly faster, yip yip!" Aang says to Appa, as they head to the Fire nation.

"Really Prince Zuko, in all your sixteen years, this is your most foolish idea. You are banished from the fire nation and if you enter it, you will be automatically arrested," Iroh says to the stubborn prince.

"You are still in Earth kingdom waters, if we turn back, they cannot arrest you. Besides think about whose lives you are putting in danger. Zhou could possibly capture the avatar if you kill him in mid-air. And you could be ending both yours and Cornelia's lives;you would be arrested, she could be killed! For once, try to think about what it is you're doing before you actually do!"

The Gaang flies fast towards the fire nation, trying to get to the crescent-shaped island and get away from Prince Zuko. Although he realizes his sister is on that ship and he wants to go get her, Aang knows that she would be upset.

She, ever since they both had found out they were Avatars, had always tried to make him believe that their duty as avatars was far more important than risking their lives constantly trying to save each other.

_She had to know what she was doing by choosing to stay with the fire nation prince, right?_

Or maybe she is trying to learn about having fun in life while doing anything she can to protect him now.

Even without having her with him on his half of this journey, he can still sense a change forming in her. She has always been a mix of being playful like him and being completely serious and wanting to prove herself worthy to their parents and the air monks.

_She's probably still trying to prove herself to the world_.

As he thinks on this, Aang realizes that Cornelia, even when she found out who their parents were, acted as a parent to him growing up.

She would make sure he had fun, learned, never got lost, and was always able to be protected by someone. Before he found out he was an avatar, Cornelia had left four years earlier and had only returned six months before he found out.

Since he never got to reunite with their parents, Cornelia had been the closest thing like a mother to him, while Gyatso had been like a father or possibly a grandfather to him.

While he was lost in thought, he didn't see that he was being shot at by Zuko and by a fire nation navy. He kept Appa dodging them, but one time, Sokka fell from Appa and they rescued him.

"Aang, you might want to look forward," said Aran.

Aang did so, just to see that a mass of fire was hurtling towards them and was close enough that they couldn't avoid it. Out of nowhere, Aang leaped off of Appa and airbended the mass of fire out of the way, thoughts of protecting his friends and Appa and Momo being the only things in his mind.

Cornelia had fear clenching her heart and refusing to let go. She was afraid of the danger Aang was putting himself in.

She was afraid of the danger Zuko was putting himself in.

When she saw Aang leap off of Appa to save his friends, she almost screamed. She was lost in her thoughts because of her fear and didn't notice the rocks on fire shot at the Gaang by the fire navy were headed straight for them.

Zuko saw her standing there, clearly struck by fear, and not moving, even as a fiery mass was rushing towards her.

_Idiotic girl_, he thought as he ran over and tackled her out of the way, saving them both.

**Cornelia's POV:**

I didn't have time to react when I registered that a fiery mass was about to hit me, so I just stared in fright at it.

_So this is how I die_, I thought. _Not doing my job by protecting Aang, and not knowing just what the gods have planned between me and Zuko to make me know that I need to help and protect him_.

Just as I am about to welcome my death, someone tackles me. Both of us are fly backwards and I hear a small yelp of pain from him. We both are missed by the fiery mass, but I fear it may have hit him.

_Oh, why did I have to stand there like an idiot instead of moving?_

Even as we hit the ground, his grip doesn't leave me. If anything, it tightens.

I can feel his body tense, and can sense he is trying to fight off some pain. He doesn't let me go to treat himself though. It's almost as if he really doesn't want to let me go.

I look up a bit for what I can without moving much. He has one arm around the lower area of my waist, the other grabbing the back of my head, and he's holding me with his eyes closed in sort-of a protective embrace. I am so happy that he cared enough to save me. It begins to bring tears to my eyes and I scoff internally at myself.

_Enough, Cornelia. You're turning into such a girl. You keep on trying to prove that you can handle yourself amongst men and not always be the damsel in distress, yet here you are, being saved once again and wanting to cry because you're happy that this guy, this prince, this firebug- your firebug prince, actually wanted to save you. Ugh. It's so pathetic, he must think you're pathetic because you have to be constantly saved by him._

While I'm giving myself an internal monologue, Zuko begins to come into realization just how long he has been holding me and begins to rise, still keeping his grip on me; just raising it to my arms.

_Oh, boy,_ I think,_ here comes the yelling._

"Why were you just standing there?" he starts.

"Don't you realize you just about got yourself killed? If I hadn't been there in time you would've been! How could you be so arrogant?! I thought you had more sense than that! I…."

He suddenly stops, and I look up at him again, wondering why he stopped his rant. His expression turns from angry to worried slowly.

"Well? Aren't you going to come back at me with some sarcastic sentence? What's wrong?"

He looks at me, checking me as a parent would do to their child, eyes scanning over me to see if there is anything physically wrong, then raises his eyes to meet mine again.

I look away, still embarrassed for how I'm reacting to all of this right now. He won't give up so he raises one of his hands to rest on my cheek, trying to make me face him again. I look at him before doing so, knowing that blush is already creeping its way onto my face with that effect he has on me and blushing harder because I'm letting him see me blush. The tears start to form in my eyes again and I can hear him asking me what's wrong again, and in the rush of the moment, I throw myself into him, crying.

I hear him gasp in shock as I hold onto him like I know that he is the only one who can protect me. His hands go back to the embrace he held me in before as I silently cry into him, hugging him an hiding my face. By the time I look up at him his face is still in shock. I hide my face again and begin an explanation.

"I..I don't know what was wrong with me. One mo..moment I saw Aang throwing himself off of Appa to save his friends and I…I freaked out because I was worried about him possibly k….killing himself by doing that. Then it felt like time just stopped until I saw orange out of the corner of my eye and fright struck me as I watched it flying towards me. I…I was in shock and I… I couldn't move. I…. was….so…scared. Then you saved me and all I could do was be embarrassed by how, all of a sudden, I keep on becoming more and more like a damsel in distress while you continue rescuing me. I…..I'm…. sorry."

His hand on the back of my head comes to my cheek as he raises my face to meet his eyes.

He looks as if he wants to say something, but closes his mouth and wipes the tears away from my eyes.

"Cor…," he barely gets out, and we are jerked to the side.

"We've been hit, Prince Zuko!" one of his men say.

"We should turn back, Prince Zuko!" says Iroh.

Then Zuko stands both of us up fully and leads me to the front of the ship.

"No!" he growls. " Continue on our path!"

I look forward to see ships forming a line on the border of the fire nation.

"Prince Zuko, it's a blockade! You are still in Earth kingdom waters, if we turn back now, they cannot arrest you!" Iroh shouts, still trying to convince the stubborn prince to do something that we all know will not happen.

Zuko continues to ignore him and all the shouts of that we were not going to make it while he just replied with "We'll make it."

Shockingly the ships stop; allowing us to pass. It's very suspicious, but my thoughts are stopped by Zuko once again gripping my waist tightly.

I look at him and follow his glare to a man standing at the edge of one of the fire navy ships.

"Zhou," Zuko growls quietly.

The man glares directly at Zuko then notices me. He begins to smirk and I can feel Zuko tense up worse and fight the want to attack. To wipe the smirk off his face and calm down Zuko a bit, I place my hand over the one he has wrapped around my waist. The man walks away and Zuko looks down.

"I'm….." he starts, before I cut him off.

"Don't," I say, and his eyes flash up to mine like he's worried that I'm angry.

I am a bit upset that he still refuses to listen to his Uncle or me about not following Aang this time, but not that he wanted to protect me from Zhou and that he got angry at Zhou.

"I wanted to wipe that ugly smirk off his face just as much as you did; and making it seem like I wasn't shocked you were kind of trying to protect me and also trying not to attack right there and that I was giving you comfort got you both to stop your little stare down."

This gets a small laugh from him. Before I can continue or he can say anything, however, Iroh interrupts us in another attempt to get Zuko to turn back.

"Prince Zuko, if we continue following the avatar, we will be leading Zhou there! We are emitting enough smoke that he'd be able to see it for a couple of miles!"

"If Zhou wants to follow a trail of smoke, let him," Zuko replies. I can see his eyes glinting as he comes up with an idea.

"Cornelia, Uncle, come with me. The rest of you keep this ship going this direction!"

**Zuko's POV:**

_There is no way Zhou can notice this_, I think to myself after I've explained the plan to Cornelia and Uncle. Cornelia will come with me while Iroh stays on board this ship and keep Zhou's men following.

If they attempt to stop this ship, then I don't want Cornelia around for them to take, so I decided she would come with me so I could make sure I could protect her. Luckily, there is enough smoke that we can be hidden as we head for the island her brother and his friends are headed to, and so Zhou won't notice us getting lowered down and leaving this path.

"Come on," I say to Cornelia as we reach the island.

"I want to get this over with quickly, before Zhou does develop enough of a brain and realize what we did."

She laughs at this, which in return causes me to give her a half-smile that I quickly think I shouldn't have done and I school my expression again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see her smile start to fade because of how quickly I guarded myself again.

_I'm sorry, Cornelia_, I think to myself,_ I just can't let you in. You'll distract me from my mission and I'll hesitate to bring both you and your brother to my father._

We make it up the temple and bring the fire sages with us. Cornelia looks around, curious as to why her brother and his friends would be hidden, and then a fire sage interrupts me staring at her.

"It looks as if they have opened the doors and went inside," he says, then shuts up when he receives my glare.

We see a shadow from under the door and I yell to the sages, "Open the door!"

We all firebend to open the door, just to reveal a…. _lemur_?

"Aang! Go now!" a girl shouts, and within seconds, I realize they have tricked us.

The fire sages begin to go pale as they hurry to close the doors. Some help me to try to capture the water tribe peasants, an earth kingdom boy, and the Avatar.

"Cornelia?"

I see him realize Cornelia a second too late, because he just narrowly makes it through the doors before they are shut completely, letting him only catch a glimpse of his sister.

I catch and have the water tribe peasants chained to a pilar rather easy.

The earth kingdom boy was a bit harder because he was running around and bending playful, non-harmful blows on the fire sages and I. He refused to hit Cornelia, so she was just standing there. After a while I made some fire sages go on either side of him to make him head towards Cornelia. Then, as he was getting close to her, I appeared and grabbed him. He was tied up soon after and I tried to get the fire sages to help me open the door and it didn't work this time.

"It's not going to work no matter how many times you try that, firebug," I hear Cornelia say, a bit bored but in a playful manner.

"Firebug?" I hear her brother's friends say.

"Oh great, now Aang's sister is falling for a bad guy and givng him terms of endearment?!" I hear the older water tribe boy say.

This gets me to give a small smirk, but I see Cornelia's face go fully red out of embarrassment.

"I say that to tease him, Sokka, not because I'm falling for him," she says, but the blush still remains.

"I think that it would take a lot for me to fall for that guy. I've never had a thing for a guy with a ponytail anyway."

This gets the other boy, and the girl to laugh, but it makes me scowl and "_Sokka_" give out little replies of shock and him being upset because he also wears his hair in a ponytail.

"Oooookay," I hear her say; obviously bored.

"I'm going to walk around a bit, since you're finding it a little too interesting to just stare at a door that isn't going to open until Roku wants it to when he's done speaking with Aang."

With that she walks off. Seconds later, I hear footsteps.

"Well that didn't take very long," I say, turning to face Cornelia only to find myself seeing Zhou holding her; he captured her.

I begin to growl and tell the fire sages to attack him, when I see several of his men standing there already, having captured the sages. I prepare myself to attack and Zhou brings on of his hands off Cornelia, only to firebend with it and bring it straight back to her, inches from her, as a warning for me to stop.

I surrender, not wanting any harm to befall her due to me, and Zhou has me chained up with the water tribe and earth kingdom kids. He has Cornelia chained to the pilar next to ours, facing us.

Then he steps in front of her, obviously trying to do something to rile me up. And brings one hand to rest near her head and the other to stroke her cheek.

"It's a shame that a pretty girl like you would have anything to do with that banished prince. He's a failure to both his family and his nation. You should really aim your standards higher, I mean, even his father or I would accept you as a bride."

His hand goes to her waist and I can see the shock, fire, and disgust in her eyes as he flirts with her.

"A pretty little thing like you needs a real man to take care of you. You need to be able to please a real man."

This finally gets her to snap and she bites back.

"Well, if you find one be sure to tell me. But I must remind you, I don't want him to be a pervert, I definitely don't want him to be old enough to be my father, and I want him to be someone I can fall for and when I look at him I won't feel disgust. Now get your creepy hands off of me!"

He turns away from her and gives an amused smirk towards me.

"This one's got a lot of fire in her for being so delicate and beautiful! I can see why you would fall for her; she is everything you're not. If she were a man, she'd be more of a man than you!"

I am about to reply to him when she growls in frustration.

"He's twice the man you'll ever be!"

This gets everyone to look at her in shock.

"He may be arrogant, a bit of a pushover, and he may look for an argument too much, but he still is wiser and braver than you or his father. You are afraid of him getting the best of you; you're a liar and a disgrace. His father is a coward; he refuses to fight any of his own battles and only thinks of himself. He will be the best firelord there has ever been when it is finally his turn if he continues the way he is getting. He at least is learning the difference of right or wrong. He didn't treat me the way any of the rest of the fire nation would if they had the princess of the air temples, an avatar who is the sister of the only other avatar, as their prisoner! He has treated me with respect, and has been given my respect in return. You and his father though, ha! You think of yourselves so highly that you think everyone respects, honors, and love you. You don't even register in your small brain capacities that you aren't loved by your people; you only try to make them fear you. And if you think you're going to be able to do that to me, then you've got another thing coming."

She smirks, finished in making a fool out of him and I am in awe. She defended me, and she insulted Zhou.

A smirk is beginning to creep onto my face when it is as quickly wiped away by a growl, a loud slap, and Cornelia crying out.

I look at her in worry and see where he slapped her: across her face. By how much pain she looks like she's in and how much he is glaring and evilly smirking at her, he definitely hit her hard enough that it will bruise.

"Get away from her!" I growl at him, causing his head to snap in my direction.

"How dare you touch her like you did and you slap her! I'll kill you!"

"Hahaha. Defending your little girlfriend, are we? Then what do you think of this?" he says as he goes back over to her.

He runs his hands up and down her waist and tries to bring her face towards his for a kiss, when all of a sudden the chains around her catch on fire.

The greenish- blue that I saw come from her when she allowed arrows to glow on her body the day I found her is the color of the flames engulfing the chains.

He brings his hands away, in shock, and looks at the flames in confusion.

Then, as quickly as he reacted that way, she kicks him and swipes his feet out from under him, before extinguishing the flames.

"Wow," I hear the earth kingdom boy next to me say.

"She is really powerful."

"I know," I smirk.

Before Zhou can get up, though, the doors fly open. One of the fire sages take this opportunity to set me and the avatar's friends free, and I rush over to help Cornelia.

Zhou is distracted by seeing Roku in place of Cornelia's brother, so I tak that as an opportunity to grab Cornelia and get out of there, knowing that the avatar is too strong in his avatar state.

"Wait," she shouts, then she heads over to Zhou and gets him to look her straight in the eyes.

"Now who is afraid of who?" she asks, before she punches him, leaving me stunned.

She races back over to me, grabs my arm and pulls me along after her, to get us to safety so we can head back to my ship.

When we leave, I see her touch where he slapped her, and I hear a faint "ow" come from her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop him," I say to her.

She looks at me, surprised, then laughs.

"Well you were chained up. I'm happy you yelled at him though, and that I got to punch him hard enough to give him a black eye. And even some of his men saw him get beaten by a girl."

We both laugh and we get back to my ship safely.

"Now, can we get out of the fire nation before your father sends everything he has against me for thinking he is a coward and that he is pathetic?" Cornelia says, as a joke.

"I also want to try to heal again before I have to fight again and I want to take a shower and not think of that pervert trying to make a move on me," she adds, acting like she wants to puke at the thought.

* * *

Okay, so there's the newest chapter for you guys. What do you think? I am actually quite proud of myself. I showed how much Zhou is a pompous perv, gave my own proverb for Iroh, and showed Cornelia being both girly and tough.

Anything you all want me to add? If so just let me know and I will fit it in somewhere, because I have a lot of ideas, but I need to try to fit them together.

Also please help because I don't know many ways to help explain about love. I hinted it with Zuko admiring Cornelia for Iroh's proverb in this chapter, but I can't think of much else. It's so confusing, love, because without realising it we feel it, yet when we attempt to explain it, we can't. hm. Kind of like when you are trying to explain what a chair is without using the words chair, or thing. I'm even really confused about love now, because what does it mean if you tell your crush you like them, then run away when they try to stop you in embarrassment, then when the two of you discuss it, your crush tells you that they don't mind you having a crush on them; they kind of enjoy it? Then if they thank you for telling them and when you ask them why they thanked you for doing that they have to think up an answer different from what they were about to reply with (such as my crush stopping what he was going to say and saying that he doesn't know, he guesses that it's nice to know someone likes you)?

Sorry for just all that stuff of my drama :( my mind just goes so weird when I have a crush. But this one is different from others. He and I haven't known each other very long, but we became friends quickly, and without either one of us (I think) realising it until my friend Keisha pointed it out to me, we had quickly started flirting with each other. All I hope, because she's one of those people who would come with a crazy plan to try to get us to end up together, is that she just lets this run its course. If it's something special, then I want it to happen naturally; I don't want us to be forced into knowing exactly what we are.

Thanks for redingt all this, and thanks for sticking with me, I will update soon. I PROMISE!


	8. Chapter 8

Hey here's the next chapter you guys! Laziness really took me over on this one because it's an easy episode and yet I had trouble with finishing this chapter!

Zuko: Yeah right. You were just wanting me to look weak. You know NOTHING about me! (Fire covers him)

Cornelia: Zuko, calm down. Not everyone can piece together who you are because you let your emotions fly all over the place. Sheesh. And you want to think any of the rest of us are reckless. Just stop with your little tantrum so the readers can get on with the story.

Me: Thanks Cornelia.

Cornelia: Anytime. You created me, so I'm on your side. Just stop making me look weak by making me cry so much and by being too much of a hormonal teenager.

Me: But you guys are hormonal teenagers! (Glares pointed at me) Uh oh.  
(Johnny Depp starts flipping off a cliff above us, yelling)

Johnny Depp: Brittbre1225 OWNS NONE OF US! SHE OWNS NOTHING BUT THE IDEA TO INCORPORATE ALL OF THIS TOGETHER! (lands, kind of woozy, but alright, and still awesome!) Did everyone see that? Because I will NOT be doing it again. (I'm in shock, so Cornelia decides she'll get me later and everyone disappears, leaving me alone to think it was a dream.)

* * *

_**Cornelia's POV:**_

I took a shower and then went back to my room, longing for some rest.  
As I pass the mirror in my room on the way to my bed, I see the mark of where Zhou slapped me. He must have been so angry that he firebended in the slap, causing it to burn a bit, but not enough to leave a scar.

I turn to go get into my bed when something flickers in the mirror out of the corner of my eye.  
I turn back to the mirror, just to see a comet.  
_Well that's weird_, I think to myself.

Then as I look around to see what caused the reflection I see myself on a cliff, witnessing the event.

"It's coming back," a voice says from next to me.  
I turn slightly to find Avatar Roku standing next to me.  
"Oh, so this is what was so important for Aang to see," I say, catching on. "So while I had my own battle going on, Aang was watching a comet? That hardly seems fair."  
Roku seems unfazed by my joke, and instead ignores me and continues.  
"This is the same comet that gave the Fire Nation the power to start this war. This comet gave them the power to begin to take the hope and freedom of the world. Aang still has to master the other three elements before summer's end, for Fire Lord Ozai will use it to finish the war and claim the greatest victory for the Fire Nation. Aang must defeat Ozai by Sozin's comet, or the world will collapse under the Fire Nation. If he shall fail to be prepared by the comet, it is your responsibility to take his place, even if it means your demise. That, sadly, is why two avatars were created for your lifetime; we believed he'd need help from someone who properly learned about being an avatar."

With that, everything starts to go fuzzy and the last thing I hear before I begin to fall unconscious is _"The fate of the world as it is today is in the hands of many your age, younger, and older."_

I don't know how long it's been, but I faintly hear someone opening my door.

"Cornelia? I came in because Uncle wanted to know if you would like some tea…. Cornelia? Cornelia!"

I hear someone running over to me and feel myself scooped up into their arms.  
I wonder what's going on, then I remember that I fainted!  
The whole memory comes back into my mind as I begin coming out of fainting while Zuko is calling my name.  
I open my eyes to end up looking into the golden orbs of his eyes, which are clearly searching for an answer to why he found me unconscious on my floor.

"Zuko?" I say, growing more confused as my mind begins to clear.  
"Yes, it's me," he says, helping me stand.  
"What happened, Cornelia? Are you hurt?"

He sounds really concerned for me, so much to where it scares me.  
I'm scared because I know that when he is like this, I can hardly hear anything other than my heart beating so loud.  
I don't want these feelings to come; I know that I'm bait for my brother.  
I know that I'm a kill for his father.  
I shake my head to clear it, and Zuko is still looking at me with all the worry.

"I… I'm fine," I say looking away and closing my eyes as I push Zuko away.  
He has a look of confusion on his face and he's looking down with his eyes staring at nothing when I look at him again.  
I feel bad, but I have to stay strong.  
I can't show him that I can be weak.

"I just got lost in thought and hadn't realized how tired I was. I'm okay, I just want to sleep some more. So, uh, why did you come in?"  
All of this snaps him out of whatever he may have been thinking about.

"What? I never said…. Oh! That! Right! Well, uh, Uncle made some tea and was wondering if you wanted to join him for tea."  
Then realization dawns on his face.  
"Oh, wait, uh, never mind. I will tell Uncle that you wanted to sleep, and I'll send one of my men in with a cup of tea for you. Just stay here and get some sleep."  
As he says this, he guides me over the rest of the way to my bed and carefully sets me on it.  
I feel so weak, having him help me like this, that I want to close my eyes and wake up from this… this….? _Well, would it be a dream or a nightmare?_  
I would say nightmare, but is it that bad that Zuko wants to make sure I'm alright?  
Even if it will only happen till he captures both avatars and returns to his father with them?

It's evident that Zuko still wants to think of his father as a good man, even though he neglected and burned his only son and, to top it off, banished him, saying the only possible way to regain his honor and be welcomed back to the fire nation would be to capture the avatar, a man they didn't even know whether or not he was still alive.  
Zuko makes sure I'm in bed, then he leaves, very quietly for being the same obnoxious, arrogant, and loud-mouthed fire bender I met before Aang and I began our separate journeys.  
_And yet, he's not the same teenage boy I met then.  
_Even that day, with him burning me, something in him began to change.  
Maybe he is just taking care of me because he is still ashamed for the scar he has given me.  
Whatever his reason for why he is becoming someone both his uncle and I admire, however small that change is, this raging dragon inside of him is finally starting to take down the walls he's built up around any emotion but anger, and the teenage boy people have known him as is slowly becoming a man.

_**Zuko's POV:**_

I was heading to Cornelia's room because of my uncle wanting her to join him for tea.  
I found it odd that I hadn't seen her since we crossed back into Earth Kingdom waters and she had gone to take a shower.  
Uncle dismissed it as her being tired to try to keep me with him, instead of irritating Cornelia if she wanted to be alone.

I still am proud of how well she defended herself against Zhou. She is strong, I'll give her that.  
But how he hit her,_ if he hit her hard enough to make that hit last, I swear I'll personally_,….?  
I stop in the middle of the hallway.  
I already loathe Zhou, so I'd already wish pain on him, but why have I felt the need to protect Cornelia so much?  
_Ugh_.  
Here I go thinking about her beauty again.  
She is strangely beautiful, her fair skin still radiant even with the scar from me, her unusual long blonde hair that adds emphasis to whatever she does, and most of all, how she is beautiful inside and out.  
Her outer beauty is what amazes most men, I'm sure, but I'm more stunned with her inner beauty.  
She will stand up for herself and others against what she knows is wrong, she'll try to help someone let people in, even if they've put barriers around themselves so they could never feel weak again.  
She's so stubborn, but she is what is expected of an avatar.  
She holds great amounts of power, but she will use it for peace and to fix what she can, not use her power to take control of others.

I stop in front of her door before I enter.  
She has been the first one, other than my uncle, to get through the walls I've built around myself.  
_How does she do it?  
_I go to open the door, but hesitate.

_What if Uncle is right?  
What if she wants to be left alone?  
Could she be angry at me for not doing more to defend her from Zhou?  
_"Cornelia, may I come in?" I meant it as more of a question, but it came out like I was demanding her to let me in.

No answer.  
That's strange.

Normally, if she doesn't want to see me, she'll tell me to go away.  
_Is she asleep?  
_I begin to open the door and walk in.

"Cornelia? I came in because Uncle wanted to know if you would like some tea…" I wait for her to reply, but she doesn't.  
"Cornelia?"

Then I find her.  
"Cornelia!"  
There, on the floor, lies Cornelia, unconscious.

I rush to her side and check to see what could've caused her to fall unconscious while taking her in my arms.  
I look to her face once again, and her eyes begin to open.  
The green emeralds of her eyes stare into my golden orbs, trying to piece together what's going on while noticing I'm worried.

"Zuko?" she says, confused.  
"Yes, it's me," I say, helping her stand. "What happened, Cornelia? Are you hurt?"  
I am worried, and yet I see her and I feel a different warmth than what comes from my fire.  
She shakes her head and says, "I… I'm fine."

She looks away as she says this and pushes me away, getting herself out of my arms.  
I'm confused, _why is she acting like this?  
Is it really that bad that I worry for her?  
Maybe… maybe she does think of me as the enemy and she… maybe she wants nothing to do with me because I wasn't able to fight Zhou away from her._ She clears her throat and my mind comes back to the present.

_She wouldn't hate me for that, she is a better person than that.  
_"I just got lost in thought and hadn't realized how tired I was. I'm okay, I just want to sleep some more. So, uh, why did you come in?" she says.  
I'm a bit confused to what is going on, but then I remember.  
"What? I never said…. Oh! That! Right! Well, uh, Uncle made some tea and was wondering if you wanted to join him for tea."

Then I realize what she just said.  
"Oh, wait, uh, never mind. I will tell Uncle that you wanted to sleep, and I'll send one of my men in with a cup of tea for you. Just stay here and get some sleep."  
I take her in my arms again and lead her to her bed, helping her get settled into it while I can see she is zoned out.  
I don't believe that she was unconscious because of simply being tired, she would still be strong enough to make it to the bed, but I leave it alone.  
If she doesn't want me to know, judging by how she didn't tell me and pushed me away, then I will give her respect and not force her to tell me.  
I leave her to her thoughts, being quiet myself, and go to get her some of uncle's tea.

Uncle should be waiting on her, but growing very tired fast, because it is late. I let a small smile spread across my lips at the thought of Cornelia and Uncle sharing that love for tea. Haha. At least Cornelia isn't as obsessed with it as Uncle!

_**Normal POV:**_

The GAang is running low on cash, yet they are at a market.  
A man comes up to them, with a grin on a rather unappealing face, and convinces them to check out the goods for sale aboard his ship.  
Aran doesn't have a good feeling about this guy and makes sure he is between Katara and the man as they go onto the ship.  
As they all browse through the items on the ship, he remains by Katara's side.

"Why don't you check some things out for yourself, Aran?" she says to him, innocently, and causing him to blush.  
"I.. well, I…" He then clears his throat. "I don't have a good feeling about these guys, Katara. They…"  
"Neither do I" Sokka says, suddenly appearing next to them.

Katara sees some scrolls and goes over to them. She spots a specific scroll and brings it out; a waterbending scroll.  
It's snatched from her hands before she even gets a good look at it, by the captain, him wearing a giant hat.

"How did you get that scroll? It belongs to the Northern Water Tribe!" she says, accusingly.  
Sokka looks around, then back to Katara and Aran, and then he realizes something.  
"Wait!" he shouts, getting everyone's attention.

"I know what you guys are! The ship, the freaky Parrot-lizard, how weird these guys are and look, suspiciously acquired merchandise, that guy's giant hat!"

"Wow. Real subtle Sokka," Aran mutters, earning a laugh from Katara, despite the anger she is beginning to feel to the captain, and causing him to blush again.  
Sokka give Aran a look, and then continues.  
"You guys are pirates!"  
"Ha ha ha!" The captain; the guy with the giant hat says.  
"We prefer the term high-risk traders," he finishes with a smirk.  
"You stole that scroll!" Katara argues.

"No we didn't," the other man, the one who brought them on-board, says.  
"We simply borrowed it without permission, but with no intentions of giving it back."  
Aran raises one eyebrow at this.  
"That's what stealing something is," he says with a monotone voice.  
"Oh! Then yeah, we stole it!" the man laughs.

Aang, fearing a fight, interrupts them.  
"Hey! How about we trade you for the scroll?"  
The Captain looks at him, skeptically, then speaks.  
"Sure, if you've got 500 gold pieces on ya."

The GAangs' expressions are in the midst of shock and defeat.  
They huddle into a small group and Aang tries to reassure his friends, believing he knows exactly what to do.  
"Don't worry guys; I'm a pro at this. You gotta act like a pirate to make a deal with one! You need to haggle with them!"

He takes the remaining pieces they have, and goes straight up to the captain.  
"Ah, matey, how's ya say we haggle a bit to decide how much that scroll there's worth, matey, savvy? How's about we give yer one copper piece?" he says, overly confident.  
"Is he making fun of how we speak?" the man that brought them asks, while the captain laughs.  
"That's real cute kid, now what's your real offer?" the captain says.  
"How's about.. two copper pieces?"  
The captain doesn't laugh this time.

"The second time isn't as cute, kid. Now it's 500 gold pieces or you don't get the scroll. I don't haggle."  
Before he does anything stupid, Aran grabs Aang and Katara convinces them all to leave, saying it wasn't worth it.  
They get off the ship and a good distance away before they speak again.

"So Katara, why did you give up that scroll so easily?" Aang asks.  
"Because you were putting yourself in danger by getting those pirates upset," Aran says, upset and realizes he still has a hold on Aang and lets him go, making him land on the ground.  
Aang then stands up and dusts himself off, and the three boys notice Katara is staying quiet and smiling at them.  
"You… you stole the scroll, didn't you?" Sokka accuses.  
Aran faces him.  
"Come on, Sokka, out of all of us, Katara'd be the last one to"

"You're right Sokka," she replies, happily.  
Aran is completely shocked and speechless as Katara shows the scroll.  
"But I think I prefer that I high-risk traded it," she says, sending chills up the boys' spines with how unlike her that was.

Suddenly, they hear a shout and in the next instant, they are on the run from the whole crew of pirates.  
They escape, but not without first running into the cabbage man again and destroying his cabbages.  
They run from the town, Aang and Sokka faster than Katara and Aran, and Katara seems happy that she went against being the sweet and innocent one in the group that Aran knew her as.  
Aran says nothing to her as he runs with her, anger in his eyes at how she could be so foolish to get on the bad side of pirates.  
_She put not only the rest of us, but herself in danger!_ He thought to himself, as he tried everything not to go and smash some boulders around recklessly.

Meanwhile, Zuko was being dragged into another one of Iroh's shopping sprees.

_**Zuko's POV:**_

I growled to myself.  
_Why does Uncle love to shop? I thought that was a girl's hobby.  
_I look over to my Uncle, to find him still talking to a merchant.  
Uncle first was trying to convince me to let him check this marketplace to see if he could find a missing lotus tile.  
He even started to drone on about how it was more important than I think, so I groaned to myself and brought us here so he would stop.  
I look around, wondering what Cornelia is doing, and I find her playing with some animals.  
I begin to walk over and I hear the pet shop owner speaking to her.

"Yes, I found this little cub when she was just one week old. Apparently the mother had been caught by some poachers and, as it seems, they tried to take the baby too, but she fought back. She isn't really expected to live very long, seeing as she has a deformity, making her a miniature version; so if she lives long, she won't become very big."  
I look down and see a small, baby Lion-wolf playing with Cornelia.

"I am surprised though," the man says with a laugh.  
"She hasn't seemed to trust anyone, let alone like them enough to play with them! I have felt sad lately, because if she wouldn't warm up to anyone, she would have had to just been put down, which would make the number of Lion-wolves on the planet decrease even more."  
I could see Cornelia's eyes shoot up at the thought of the little cub being "put down" and at the sadness of the last bit of what the merchant had said.

"Well, she is so adorable and loving, but I'm afraid I can't…"  
"We'll buy her," I say, and I lay a small bag of 50 gold pieces on the counter.  
"Grab you pet and let's go," I say to Cornelia, who is apparently shocked.

The Lion-wolf gives a happy yap and runs over towards me, wagging its tail. It then runs back over to Cornelia and climbs onto her shoulder, cuddling into the crook of her neck.  
Cornelia smiles, holds the cub in her arms and walks over to join me.  
When we walk back to where I was waiting for Uncle, Cornelia gives me a hug with one arm she took away from holding the cub.  
Uncle finally finishes, and I see my men carrying a lot of trinkets to our ship. Uncle says he didn't find the lotus tile in the shop, but he found a lot of other interesting items.  
Just as I think I may be lucky enough to leave, Uncle drags Cornelia and I onto another ship.

As he looks around I see Cornelia holding the cub protectively close as she stands by the door, not making any attempt to even amuse herself by looking around.  
I walk over to her and before I reach her a conversation reaches my ears.  
"We couldn't catch them, captain. The two water tribe kids, the earth kingdom kid, and the little bald monk out ran us and lost us."  
_Bald monk?  
The avatar!  
_I face them and speak.  
"Did this bald monk have a blue arrow on his head?" I ask them, as I make a plan to finally capture that airbender.

We decide to work together, the pirates and me.  
If they help me capture the "bald monk" without trouble, I will get back their scroll for them.  
Though I told her not to, Cornelia comes with Uncle and I, bringing her new pet with her.  
She obtained a bag Uncle had bought and is using it to hold her pet, so she can do things, but she can keep her pet with her.  
She confided in me earlier that she didn't trust these guys, so she wasn't sure I should team up with them.  
I ignored her and walked away; something I realize was stupid to do because now she is playing the "silent treatment" game.

"Shouldn't we search the forests?" The captain of the pirates asks.  
I swear, he must not think very much because it seemed obvious enough to me that they wouldn't be able to do much water-bending without a water source.  
"Well, they stole a water bending scroll, right?" I begin, making sure to get him to realize how dense I must think he is.  
"So they should be on the water; wouldn't you think?"

We end up finding the water tribe girl, and tie her to a tree; I let her see I have her necklace as I try to convince her to tell me where the avatar is.  
As she refuses I walk over to Cornelia and place it around her neck.  
This catches her attention from whatever she was thinking while she was watching the pirates.  
"Wa- what do you think you're doing?" I almost laugh at how that got her to speak and she yanks off the necklace.  
I have the avatar brought before me in a couple of seconds.  
As the pirates and I go into a little stand-off of who'll hand over the items promised first, I threaten to burn the scroll.  
Then that idiot water tribe boy just had to open his fat mouth.

"You'd really hand over an avatar for that scroll?" he says, drawing the attention to himself.  
"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!" I shout at him.  
"Yeah, Sokka, I really think you should listen," the avatar says.  
"Yeah," I hear Cornelia quietly say.  
"I'm just saying, it's bad business and all. I mean, that little scroll is worth nothing, compared to an avatar, let alone two."  
He points to Cornelia and the pirates finally understand.

We go into a battle and lose track of where Cornelia's brother and his friends go as the earth kingdom kid shows up and creates a giant sandy smoke, growling something along the lines of "So, Sokka's good enough to kidnap, but I'm not!"

I see him free the water tribe girl as I fight and finally, after uncle stops us, I see that those kids stole the pirates' boat.

As I stand there laughing at the pirates, Cornelia lays her hand on my shoulder.  
"Um, Zuko?" she catches my attention and points somewhere.

"Hey! That's my boat!" I yell when I see that the pirates have stolen my boat.  
We chase them along the bank, and witness as the children are saved by the flying bison once again and the pirates and both boats crash over a waterfall. Uncle begins to laugh.

"Z-Zuko, you're going to find this funny. It turns out the lotus tile was in my sleeve the whole time!"  
As he continues to laugh, I quickly snatch away the tile and throw it over the waterfall, steaming mad.  
"Well, someone still needs to control their temper don't they?" Cornelia says, directing it for me to hear, but speaking to her pet.  
"Aww. And who is this furry friend?" Uncles asks her.  
My anger begins to go away slightly because of her reply.

"This is my new pet Lion-wolf. Zuko was sweet enough to buy her for me."  
The pet just yapped, looked at me, and wagged its tail.  
"Why does that thing even like me?"  
Cornelia laughs.  
"Isn't it obvious? She's happy that you are such a kind person that you wanted her to be with the only human she's trusted. She probably thinks of you as her owner in a way too because you did that. She likes and trusts you because I do."

I shut up and try to keep myself from blushing. _Gah, why does she have to say things like that?_ I think to myself as we begin walking back to my actual ship.

* * *

Zuko: Well, that wasn't too bad.  
Cornelia: So you think that anything about me is cute huh?  
(Zuko blushes) Zuko: N..N..No, I... I Never said that  
(Cornelia smirks.)  
Me: OKay you guys, get a room.  
Cornelia: Oh, you're just jealous.  
Me: SHUT UP! (Kicks them out of my mind)

Okay so I hope you enjoyed this chapter! By the way, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help me come up with a name for our new cute little furry addition to the story? I want something unique! If you come up with the best one, it will become her name! She is a miniature lion-wolf, who'll grow to be about the size of an Artic Fox. She has soft fur, which is both gray and black, with streaks of blue in the sunlight. She has golden eyes with specks of blue in them. Her look is more like her wolf side and her body build is more like her lion side (so as she grows older, she can become a threat).

Keep on reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing. And please help me find a name for the new pet! I love you guys! See you soon!


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